550. The celestial regions, to which Liberty | He ev'n, into his tender system, took retired, not proper to be opened to the view of mortals. LIBERTY. PART 111. 10 HERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms, Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each assign'd Kept an unclosing eye; try'd to sustain, "Not so the Samian sage; to him belongs The brightest witness of recording fame. For these free states his native isle forsook, And a vain tyrant's transitory smile, He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air, And through Great Greece his gentle wisdom taught; 20 30 40 50 Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind, 60 Whatever shares the brotherhood of life! 70 80 Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan Of Greece I vary'd; whose unmixing states, By the keen soul of emulation pierc'd, Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts, And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse O'er men an empire was my purpose now: To let my martial majesty abroad; Into the vortex of one state to draw The whole mix'd force, and liberty, on Earth; To conquer tyrants, and set nations free. 90 "Already have 1 given, with flying touch, A broken view of this my amplest reign. Now, while its first, last, periods you survey, Mark how it labouring rose, and rapid fell. "When Rome in noon-tide empire grasp'd the world, 100 And, soon as her resistless legions shone, 110 As more by virtue mark'd: till Romans, all 120 One band of friends, unconquerable grew. [voice, "Hence, when their country rais'd her plaintive The voice of pleading Nature was not heard; And in their hearts the fathers throbb'd no more: Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole. Hence sweeten'd pain, the luxury of toil; Patience, that baffled Fortune's utmost rage; High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb, When Brennus conquer'd, and when Cannæ bled, The bravest impulse felt, and scorn'd despair. 150 Hence Moderation a new conquest gain'd; 140 150 159 In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, While he his honest roots to gold preferr'd ; While truly rich, and by his Sabine field, The man maintain'd, the Roman's splendour all Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd: Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plough; Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown, In long majestic flow, to rule the state, With Wisdom's purest eye; or, clad in steel, To drive the steady battle on the foe. Hence every passion, ev'n the proudest, stoop'd, To common good: Camillus, thy revenge; Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence, Consuls, dictators, still resign'd their rule, The very moment that the laws ordain'd. Though Conquest o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings, Her laurels wreath'd, and yok'd her snowy steeds To the triumphal car; soon as expir'd The latest hour of sway, taught to submit (A harder lesson that than to command) Into the private Roman sunk the chief. If Rome was serv'd, and glorious, careless they By whom. Their country's fame they deem'd their And, above envy, in a rival's train, [own; Sung the loud lös by themselves deserv'd. Hence matchless courage. On Cremera's bank, Hence fell the Fabii; hence the Decii dy'd; And Curtius plung'd into the flaming gulf. Hence Regulus the wavering fathers firm'd, By dreadful counsel never given before, For Roman honour sued, and his own doom. Hence he sustain'd to dare a death prepar'd By Punic rage. On earth his manly look Relentless fix'd, he from a last embrace, By chains polluted, put his wife aside, His little children climbing for a kiss; Then dumb through rows of weeping wondering A new illustrious exile! press'd along. Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds Opposing his return, than if, escap'd From long litigious suits, he glad forsook The noisy town a while, and city cloud, To breath Venafrian, or Tarentine air. Need I these high particulars recount? The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame; Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear. Life had no charms, nor any terrours fate, When Rome and glory call'd. But, in one view, Mark the rare boast of these unequal'd times. Ages revolv'd unsully'd by a crime: Astrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws To bind a race elated with the pride Of virtue, and disdaining to descend To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs. While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome All peaceful smil'd, all save the passing clouds That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow! And fair unblemish'd centuries elaps'd, When not a Roman bled but in the field. Their virtue such, that an unbalanc'd state, Still between noble and plebeian tost, As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power, Was thence kept firm, and with triumphant prow Rode out the storms. Oft though the native feuds, That from the first their constitution shook, (A latent ruin, growing as it grew) Stood on the threatening point of civil war 210 And sensible to truth, that o'er the rage 230 "Thus up the hill of empire slow they toil'd: Till, the bold summit gain'd, the thousand states Of proud Italia blended into one; Then o'er the nations they resistless rush'd, And touch'd the limits of the failing world. "Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite. See that which borders wild the western main, Where storms at large resound, and tides immense : From Caledonia's din cerulean coast, And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd Amid the restless clouds, and leaning heaven, Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name. Mark that oppos'd, where first the springing Morn Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews: From the dire deserts by the Caspian lav'd, To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join'd, Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain; And blest Arabia aromatic breathes. 240 170 See that dividing far the watery north, [friends, 180 190 mouth'd, In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars; 250 In this vast space what various tongues, and states! What bounding rocks, and mountains, floods and seas! [divine, What purple tyrants quell'd, and nations freed! A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierc'd From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung. 299 And music, sparkling wine, and converse warm, Their raptures wak'd anew.-Ye gods!' they cry'd, 310 'Ye guardian gods of Greece! And are we free? Was it not madness deem'd the very thought? And is it true? How did we purchase chains? At what a dire expense of kindred blood? And are they now dissolv'd? And scarce one drop For the fair first of blessings have we paid? Courage, and conduct, in the doubtful field, When rages wide the storm of mingling war, Are rare indeed; but how to generous ends To turn success, and conquest, rarer still: That the great gods and Romans only know. Lives there on Earth, almost to Greece unknown, A people so magnanimous, to quit Their native soil, traverse the stormy deep, And by their blood and treasure, spent for us, Redeem our states, our liberties, and laws! There does! there does! oh, saviour Titus! Rome!' Thus through the happy night they pour'd their And in my last reflected beams rejoic'd. [sonls, As when the shepherd, on the mountain brow,322 Sits piping to his flocks, and gamesome kids; Meantime the Sun, beneath the green Earth sunk, Slants upward o'er the scene a parting gleam: Short is the glory that the mountain gilds, Plays on the glittering flocks, and glads the swain; To western worlds irrevocable roll'd, Rapid, the source of light recalls his ray.' Here interposing I." Oh, queen of men! 330 Beneath whose sceptre in essential rights Equal they live; though plac'd, for common good, Various, or in subjection, or command; And that by common choice: alas! the scene, With virtus, freedom, and with glory bright, 349 Streams into blood, and darkens into woe." They flam'd to tumult. Independence fail'd; 350 360 380 This firm republic, that against the blast Of opposition rose; that (like an oak, Nurs'd on feracious Algidum, whose boughs Still stronger shoot beneath the rigid axe) By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself, Ev'n force and spirit drew; smit with the calm, The dead serene of prosperous fortune, pin'd. Nought now her weighty legions could oppose ;370 Her terrour once on Afric's tawny shore, Now smok'd in dust, a stabling now for wolves; And every dreaded power receiv'd the yoke. Besides, destructive, from the conquer'd, east, In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues, That pestilence of mind, a fever'd thirst For the false joys which luxury prepares. Unworthy joys! that wasteful leave behind No mark of honour, in reflecting hour, No secret ray to glad the conscious soul; At once involving in one ruin wealth, And wealth-acquiring powers: while stupid self, Of narrow gust, and hebetating sense Devour the nobler faculties of bliss. Hence Roman virtue slacken'd into sloth; Security relax'd the softening state; And the broad eye of government lay clos'd; No more the laws inviolable reign'd, And public weal no more: but party rag'd; And partial power, and licence unrestrain'd, 590 Let discord through the deathful city loose. First, mild Tiberius, on thy sacred head The fury's vengeance fell; the first, whose blood Had since the consuls stain'd contending Rome. Of precedent pernicious! with thee bled Three hundred Romans; with thy brother, next, Three thousand more; till, into battles turn'd Debates of peace, and forc'd the trembling laws, The forum and comitia horrid grew, A sceffe of barter'd power, or recking gore. When, half-asham'd, Corruption's thievish arts, And ruffian force began to sap the mounds And majesty of laws; if not in time Repress'd severe, for human aid too strong The torrent turns, and overbears the whole. 400 "Thus luxury, dissension, a mix'd rage It touch'd the skies, and spread o'er shelter'd Earth 480 A rage impatient of an equal name; But when, with sudden and enormous change, 420 | Th' imperial monsters all.—A race on Earth 490 500 Vindictive, sent the scourge of human-kind! "By brutal Marius, and keen Sylla, first 450 In dust and gore defil'd? no friend, forlorn? Hence, for succeeding years, my troubled reign 470 "Meantime o'er rocky Thrace, and the deep She softens; and immediate, at the touch 520 530 Yet there life glows; the furry millions there, 540 "Long in the barbarous heart the bury'd seeds Of freedom lay, for many a wintery age; And though my spirit work'd, by slow degrees, I i Nought but its pride and fierceness yet appear'd. Then was the night of time, that parted worlds. I quitted Earth the while. As when the tribes 550 Aerial, warn'd of rising winter, ride 560 Of cities, natious, empires, and of worlds. NOTES ON PART III. 570 Ver. 7. The last struggles of liberty in Greece. Ver. 34. Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant Polycrates. Ver. 37. The southern parts of Italy, and Sicily, so called because of the Grecian colonies there settled. Ver. 38. His scholars were enjoined silence for five years. Ver. 57. The four cardinal virtues. Ver. 244. The ancient name of the Volga. Ver. 245. The Caspian sea. Ver. 264. The king of Macedonia. Ver. 286. The Isthmian games were celebrated at Corinth. Ver. 369. Carthage. Ver. 390. Tib. Gracchus. Ver. 465. Pub. Servilius Rullus, tribune of the people, proposed an Agrarian Law, in appearance very advantageous for the people, but destructive of their liberty; and which was defeated by the eloquence of Cicero, in his speech against Rullus. Ver. 489. Tiberius. Ver. 496. Thrasea Pætus, put to death by Nero. Tacitus introduces the account he gives of his death thus." After having inhumanly slaughtered so many illustrious men, he (Nero) burned at last with a desire of cutting off virtue itself in the person of Thrasea, &c." Ver. 505. Antoninus Pius, and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, afterwards called Antoninus Philosophus. Ver. 511. Constantine's arch, to build which, that of Trajan was destroyed, sculpture having been then almost entirely lost. Ver. 515. The ancient Sarmatia contained a vast tract of country running all along the north of Europe, and Asia, BRITAIN: BEING THE FOURTH PART OF LIBERTY, A POEM. THE CONTENTS OF PART IV. DIFFERENCE betwixt the ancients and moderns slightly touched upon, to ver. 30. Description of the dark ages. The goddess of Liberty, who during these is supposed to have left Earth, returns, attended with Arts and Science, to ver. 100. She first descends on Italy. Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture fix at Rome, to revive their several arts by the great models of antiquity there, which many barbarous invasions had not been able to destroy. The revival of these arts marked out. That sometimes arts may flourish for a while under despotic governments, though never the natural and genuine production of them, to ver. 254. Learning begins to dawn. The Muse and Science attend Liberty, who in her progress towards Great Britain raises several free states and cities. These enumerated, to ver. 381. Author's exclamation of joy, upon seeing the British seas and coasts rise in the vision, which painted whatever the goddess of Liberty said. She resumes her narration. The Genius of the Deep appears, and, addressing Liberty, associates Great Britain into his domi nion, to ver. 451. Liberty received and congratulated by Britannia, and the native Genii or Virtues of the island. These described. Animated by the presence of Liberty, they begin their operations. Their beneficent influence contrasted with the works and delusions of opposing demons, to ver. 626. Concludes with an abstract of the English history, marking the several advances of Liberty, down to her complete establishment at the Revolution. [depth To this the power, whose vital radiance calls From the brute mass of man an order'd world: "Wait till the morning shines, and from the Of Gothic darkness springs another day. True genius droops; the tender ancient taste Of beauty, then fresh-blooming in her prime, But faintly trembles through the callous soul, And grandeur, or of morals, or of life, Sinks into safe pursuits, and creeping cares. Ev'n cautious virtue seems to stoop her flight, 20 And aged life to deem the generous deeds Of youth romantic. Yet in cooler thought Well-reason'd, in researches piercing deep Through Nature's works, in profitable arts, And all that calm experience can diselose, (Slow guide, but sure) behold the world anew |